5 food additives even grosser than ‘pink slime’

As meat prices soar, so-called pink slime — a processed meat byproduct that’s sprayed with ammonia (the beef industry prefers the term “lean finely textured beef”) — is making a comeback, according to an article last year in The Wall Street Journal. And while that surely grosses people out, it’s far from the only disgusting food additive your family is probably gobbling up in mass quantities. Here are five shocking things found in common foods.

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Secretions from a beaver’s butt

You might want to think twice before you take a big lick of that delicious-looking ice cream cone or a large bite from that cookie — it may have been made with a molasses-looking substance secreted from a beaver’s behind. The food additive castoreum — which is used to flavor some cookies, cakes, ice creams and other vanilla-flavored foods — is made from the anal secretions of a beaver and is often labeled “natural flavoring” when it’s included in the products, which makes it hard to avoid. The additive has been used to flavor foods in this country for about 80 years.

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Pulverized beetles

If you’re like most of us, you’ve eaten a food colored red — and if that’s the case, you may have eaten pulverized beetles. The cochineal beetles are ground up and used to make a red food coloring commonly called carmine, carminic acid or cochineal extract. While most people digest this substance just fine, there have been rare, but serious, side effects — most notably some people go into anaphylactic shock after eating substances colored with carmine. This food coloring is listed on labels in the U.S. so consumers can avoid it if they want.

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Human and rodent hair

Human hair is regularly — and not accidentally — added to some types of bread and other baked goods, via an additive made from hair (most of it human, some from animal feathers and cow horns) called L-cysteine. The reason food manufacturers use L-cysteine is because it prolongs the shelf life of bread and other baked goods; you can avoid it by buying freshly baked goods. Rodent hair, on the other hand, is an accidental additive — the sometimes-result of foods made in big factories that have rodents. The FDA allows a small amount of rodent hair in many foods.

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Fish bladders

Before you kick off your holiday weekend with a cold one, better take note of this: Many beers and wines contain fish bladders. The substance isinglass is made from the ground up, dried swim bladder of a fish and is used to filter out particles in beer and wine, making the drinks clearer. Not only does this make many beers and wines unsuitable for vegetarians, but it’s also hard to know which contain this substance because it’s often not listed on the bottle.

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Maggots and insect eggs

While food manufacturers don’t put these items in your food intentionally, maggots and insect eggs do end up in there often — and that’s completely legal. The FDA allows certain amounts of so-called “defects” — these include maggots and insect eggs — in everyday foods. For example, many fruits and vegetables can contain a small number of larvae; the red fish and ocean perch fish can contain a small number of so-called copepods (these parasites sometimes enter the fish and make pus pockets in them); and even spices are allowed to contain insect fragments.

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Maggots and insect eggs

While food manufacturers don’t put these items in your food intentionally, maggots and insect eggs do end up in there often — and that’s completely legal. The FDA allows certain amounts of so-called “defects” — these include maggots and insect eggs — in everyday foods. For example, many fruits and vegetables can contain a small number of larvae; the red fish and ocean perch fish can contain a small number of so-called copepods (these parasites sometimes enter the fish and make pus pockets in them); and even spices are allowed to contain insect fragments.

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